A Stress-Free Turkey Day

It’s a nice three-day week since Thanksgiving is on Thursday! I can’t wait for it since it’s a nice long weekend and I get to stuff myself silly without feeling guilty. Well okay, I stuff myself silly all the time and I don’t feel guilty about it anyway. I love Thanksgiving, black Friday and the fact that the weekend comes after that. Luckily I’m not working on Friday. Four day weekend!

This year I have two Thanksgivings to attend. First for my husband’s family, then after to my aunt’s place where she has about thirty people over. We’ll be bringing some dishes for the first but not for the second since we won’t be eating. Just there to enjoy the company. Last year my husband and I actually did cook an entire traditional Thanksgiving meal ourselves. Thankfully this year we’re splitting up the work! We’re bringing the pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and the ham. It’s only three dishes so it’s not overwhelming and it’ll be a small get-together. It can still be some work though but we’re doing a mix of store-bought and homemade.

We’re keeping our Thanksgiving as stress-free as possible by not making everything from scratch! Other people might not be as minimal as us though so here’s some good ways to keep it chill.

Have other people help out by coming over early or bring some food
If you happen to be the one hosting the Thanksgiving dinner there’s nothing wrong in asking people to come help out by coming over or bringing food. You’re already opening up your place to them so they should be glad to help. A traditional Thanksgiving meal is comprised of so many dishes that it’s insane to think that one person can do it alone. It’s unfair to expect one person to do the hosting and cook everything. In my family usually the person hosting cooks the main dish and then everyone else brings something.

Make only your favorite dishes
I don’t love every single Thanksgiving dish there is. I love my pumpkin pie but I definitely could forgo the stuffing. This year we’re not even bothering with stuffing and a turkey. It’s fun to have a turkey but no one really likes to eat it. Plus we have a small gathering so we would end up with tons of leftover turkey.

Don’t make every single dish from scratch
Last year when we cooked an entire meal we made certain dishes from scratch and others from the box. The ones that made a huge difference if made from scratch were the ones we spent more time on. Things like stuffing we just bought a pre-made mix. Mashed potatoes we made from scratch too since powdered instant potatoes are just gross. We’re going even simpler this year and we bought the pumpkin pie pre-baked and will be getting a ham from Honeybaked Ham. The only thing we’re making is the mashed potatoes!

Use reusable containers and bring your own tupperware
Everyone knows there’s always leftovers during Thanksgiving! Make sure to make your dishes in reusable containers and bring some tupperware of your own! Metal and glass pans are a lot sturdier than aluminum ones and won’t buckle under a heavy load. Take an extra step and be kind to the earth on Thanksgiving!

What things do you do to make your Thanksgiving day go by much smoother?